Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

First Edition: June 26, 2018

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.

Kaiser Health News:
Dementia And Gun Safety: When Should Aging Americans Retire Their Weapons?
With a bullet in her gut, her voice choked with pain, Dee Hill pleaded with the 911 dispatcher for help. “My husband accidentally shot me,” Hill, 75, of The Dalles, Ore., groaned on the May 16, 2015, call. “In the stomach, and he can’t talk, please …” Less than four feet away, Hill’s husband, Darrell Hill, a former local police chief and two-term county sheriff, sat in his wheelchair with a discharged Glock handgun on the table in front of him, unaware that he’d nearly killed his wife of almost 57 years. (Aleccia and Bailey, 6/26)

Kaiser Health News:
Thinking About An Association Health Plan? Read The Fine Print
If you own a restaurant, plumbing company or other small business, you may be intrigued by the expected expansion of association health plans under a new rule that got a stamp of approval from the Trump administration last week. Will they meet your needs? Save you money? Those are important questions for small businesses and self-employed people who struggle to buy affordable insurance for themselves and their workers. (Andrews, 6/26)

Kaiser Health News:
Gawande’s Goal Is Providing The ‘Right’ Health Care In New Venture By 3 Firms
Dr. Atul Gawande, the famed surgeon-writer-researcher chosen to lead a joint health venture by three prominent employers to bring down health costs, said his biggest goal is to help professionals “make it simpler to do the right thing” in delivering care to patients. His comments at the Aspen Ideas Festival came just days after being named chief executive of a health care partnership unveiled earlier this year by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase & Co. The new enterprise will oversee health coverage for about 1.2 million employees of the companies and their families. Gawande said he will focus on the same behaviors by doctors and hospitals that he studies at his Boston-based think tank Ariadne Labs. (Rovner, 6/26)

California Healthline:
After Setback, Proponents Of Universal Coverage In Calif. Look To Next Governor
Advocates of state-funded efforts to expand health insurance coverage for immigrants and some middle-class Californians will have to wait for the next governor before they can have any realistic hope of advancing that goal. Several proposals to make coverage more accessible and affordable for millions of Californians were left out of the state’s 2018-19 budget, dealing a sharp setback to Democratic lawmakers who fashion themselves as leaders of the resistance against federal retrenchment on health care. (Ibarra, 6/25)

The Hill:
Defying Predictions, ObamaCare Insurers See Boom Times Ahead
Health insurers are finding success in ObamaCare this year and are planning to expand their offerings in many states, defying expert’s predictions. Insurance startup Oscar Health filed to sell ObamaCare plans in Florida, Arizona and Michigan for the first time, and will enter new markets in Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. (Weixel, 6/26)

Bloomberg:
Sky-High Deductibles Broke The U.S. Health Insurance System
Today, 39 percent of large employers offer only high-deductible plans, up from 7 percent in 2009, according to a survey by the National Business Group on Health. Half of all workers now have health insurance with a deductible of at least $1,000 for an individual, up from 22 percent in 2009, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. About 41 percent say they can’t pay a $400 emergency expense without borrowing or selling something, according to the Federal Reserve. The bottom line: People like the Jordans simply can’t afford to get sick. (Tozzi and Tracer, 6/26)

Reuters:
Where Are The Beds? Questions Surround Trump's Plan To Hold Families In Detention
One child stopped eating and fell into a depression. Another who could previously walk on his own now asks his mother to carry him everywhere. A third child started biting other children. These are the experiences of children who have spent just three weeks at a temporary family immigration detention at the South Texas Family Detention Center in Dilley, Texas, attorneys and volunteers who work at the center told Reuters. (Levinson, Torbati and Cooke, 6/25)

Bloomberg:
Immigrant Children Forcibly Medicated While In U.S. Custody, Lawyers Say
Children who allege they’re being detained for crossing the U.S. border without any court oversight and forcibly medicated will have to wait another month for a judge to consider whether the government’s practices violate a 1997 agreement. A federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday postponed to July 27 a hearing that had been scheduled for this week. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee gave human rights’ lawyers representing immigrant children two days to respond to a separate U.S. Justice Department request to modify the 1997 settlement that restricts the use of detainment so that children caught crossing the border illegally can be held together with their families. (Pettersson, 6/25)

The Associated Press:
Migrant Kids Could End Up In Already Strained Foster System
Foster care advocates say the government won't likely be able to reunite thousands of children separated from parents who crossed the border illegally, and some will end up in an American foster care system that is stacked against Latinos and other minorities. With few Spanish-speaking caseworkers, it's a challenge tracking down family members of the children who live south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and other relatives living in the states might be afraid to step forward to claim them because of fears of being detained or deported themselves. (6/26)

The Washington Post:
Republicans Press Ahead With Narrow Fix To Migrant Crisis Created By Trump
Republicans pressed ahead Monday with a narrow fix to the migrant crisis created by President Trump, all but abandoning efforts for a far-reaching immigration overhaul that would fund a border wall and deal with the fate of young undocumented immigrants. With Trump proving to be an unpredictable ally, deeply divided Republicans say they have little hope of rallying support for a broad package of reforms. However, GOP leaders are eager to adopt legislation that would make sure migrant children can remain with their parents at the border. (DeBonis and Sullivan, 6/25)

The Associated Press:
Authorities Abandon ‘Zero-Tolerance’ For Immigrant Families
The Trump administration has scaled back a key element of its zero-tolerance immigration policy amid a global uproar over the separation of more than 2,300 migrant families, halting the practice of turning over parents to prosecutors for charges of illegally entering the country. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Monday that President Donald Trump’s order last week to stop splitting immigrant families at the border required a temporary halt to prosecuting parents and guardians, unless they had criminal history or the child’s welfare was in question. He insisted the White House’s zero tolerance policy toward illegal entry remained intact. (Spagat and Lee, 6/26)

The Associated Press:
A Day With Border Patrol: Imperiled Infant, Distraught Dad
The 4-month-old Honduran had just entered the United States illegally with a man who first claimed to be her father, then said he was her uncle, and presented what appeared to be a false birth certificate. The girl, wrapped in white bedding, was placed in a white crib under close watch of U.S. investigators, who waited for a Honduran consular official to arrive Monday. She was among about 1,100 people in a former warehouse that tripled in size last year, largely to accommodate people — many from Central America — traveling as families, and children traveling alone. (6/25)

The Wall Street Journal:
New CDC Director Targets Opioids, Suicide And Pandemics
The nation’s rapidly rising suicide rate is a tragedy, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is doing more to address two of the most common ways people take their lives: substance abuse and firearms, the agency’s new director said in his first interview in the role. “It should bring people to have pause,” Robert Redfield said of the suicide rate, in an interview that also touched on his goals for ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S., improving immunization rates and strengthening public-health systems in countries where epidemics are a risk. (McKay, 6/25)

Stat:
How Scientists Want To Use Sewers To Track The Spread Of Opioids
Today, science has made possible what [Victor] Hugo could not have fathomed in his day: water-sampling robots placed at strategic points in a sewer system and capable of delivering ever-more precise information about a community’s health. As the country confronts an opioid crisis that kills more than 60,000 American each year, one Cambridge, Mass.-based company is hoping that it can use that kind of technology to measure traces of the drugs in sewers. Doing so, according to the firm, Biobot Analytics, could help to reveal remarkably detailed patterns of drug use — and give communities a powerful tool to detect emerging public health threats. (Chen, 6/26)

The Wall Street Journal:
GE To Spin Off Health-Care Business In Latest Revamp
General Electric Co. plans to spin off its health-care business and unload its ownership in oil-services company Baker Hughes, people familiar with the matter said, betting that the once-sprawling conglomerate can reverse a painful slump by further shrinking. The moves are the conclusion of a yearlong strategic review by CEO John Flannery that has been tumultuous for GE employees and investors. The onetime industrial bellwether has slashed its dividend and has already set plans to shed numerous businesses. Its shares have tumbled by half in the past year, erasing more than $100 billion in wealth. (Gryta, 6/26)

The Associated Press:
Medical Milestone: US OKs Marijuana-Based Drug For Seizures
U.S. health regulators on Monday approved the first prescription drug made from marijuana, a milestone that could spur more research into a drug that remains illegal under federal law, despite growing legalization for recreational and medical use. The Food and Drug Administration approved the medication, called Epidiolex, to treat two rare forms of epilepsy in patients 2 years and older. But it's not quite medical marijuana. (6/25)

The Washington Post:
First Marijuana-Derived Drug Approved, Will Target Severe Epilepsy
The drug, called Epidiolex, is an oral solution containing highly purified cannabidiol (CBD), which is one of scores of chemicals in the cannabis sativa plant, commonly known as marijuana. The drug contains only trace amounts of the psychoactive element THC and does not induce euphoria. Epidiolex was approved for patients age 2 and older who suffer from Lennox-Gastaut and Dravet syndromes. Both cause uncontrolled daily seizures and put patients at high risk for other physical and intellectual disabilities, injury and early death. The disorders afflict fewer than 45,000 people in the United States, but experts expect Epidiolex to be prescribed for other types of epilepsy as well. The drug is the first treatment approved for Dravet syndrome. (McGinley, 6/25)

The Wall Street Journal:
FDA Approves First Drug Derived From Marijuana Plant
The FDA said Monday that the drug doesn’t cause the high that comes from the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is the main psychoactive component of marijuana. FDA officials also said the drug doesn’t appear to have abuse potential, citing minimal reports of euphoria in patients who took the drug in clinical studies. (Loftus, 6/25)

NPR:
FDA Approves Marijuana-Based Pharmaceutical Drug
"This approval serves as a reminder that advancing sound development programs that properly evaluate active ingredients contained in marijuana can lead to important medical therapies," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb during a call with reporters about the approval. (Aubrey, 6/25)

The New York Times:
Meet Colorado’s New Single-Issue Voters: The Cannabis Community
The political rise of Colorado’s cannabis industry is, in essence, the story of Garrett Hause’s alfalfa farm. Mr. Hause, a broad-shouldered, 25-year-old horticulturist who tills his family’s land in the shadow of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, said he was never particularly interested in politics — that is, until voters legalized cannabis in 2012. He started familiarizing himself with the stringent state regulations that govern the industry. He and a friend then created Elation Cannabis Company, which uses a section of the family’s soil to grow hemp. (Herndon, 6/25)

The Associated Press:
Oklahoma Voters Weigh 1st Marijuana Ballot Question Of 2018
Oklahoma primary voters were weighing Tuesday whether to approve one of the least-restrictive state laws allowing medical marijuana, the nation's first cannabis ballot question of the year. State Question 788 , the result of an activist-led signature drive launched more than two years ago, would make it legal to grow, sell and use marijuana for medicinal purposes. The proposed law outlines no qualifying conditions, which would allow physicians to prescribe its use for a broad range of ailments — a fact that has sparked bitter opposition from law enforcement, business, faith and political leaders. (6/26)

Los Angeles Times:
USC Scandal Sparks A Reckoning In Gynecology: How To Better Protect Patients?
For some USC students who visited campus gynecologist George Tyndall, it was obvious right away that something was wrong. They said he touched them in inappropriate ways, made bizarre comments and acted unprofessionally. Others said they left feeling uneasy but weren’t sure what to make of Tyndall’s behavior. It wasn’t until the Los Angeles Times revealed years of misconduct allegations against the doctor that these patients said they began to come to terms with those exams. (Karlamangla, 6/25)

The Washington Post:
Can The ‘Immortal Cells’ Of Henrietta Lacks Sue For Their Own Rights?
A lawyer representing the eldest son and two grandsons of Henrietta Lacks, whose “immortal cells” have been the subject of a best-selling book, a TV movie, a family feud, cutting-edge medical research and a multibillion-dollar biotech industry, announced last week that she plans to file a petition seeking “guardianship” of the cells. “The question we are dealing with is ‘Can the cells sue for mistreatment, misappropriation, theft and for the profits earned without their consent?’ ” said Christina J. Bostick, who is representing Lawrence Lacks, the eldest son of Lacks, and grandsons Lawrence Lacks Jr. and Ron Lacks. (Brown, 6/25)

Los Angeles Times:
The Surprising Thing The 'Marshmallow Test' Reveals About Kids In An Instant-Gratification World
Here’s a psychological challenge for anyone over 30 who thinks “kids these days” can’t delay their personal gratification: Before you judge, wait a minute. It turns out that a generation of Americans now working their way through middle school, high school and college are quite able to resist the prospect of an immediate reward in order to get a bigger one later. Not only that, they can wait a minute longer than their parents’ generation, and two minutes longer than their grandparents’ generation could. (Healy, 6/26)

The Wall Street Journal:
Global DNA Collection Kicks Off In Africa, Aiming To Decode Psychiatric Disease
Several dozen African clinics and hospitals are the latest front in the battle to decipher the genetic roots of the little-understood diseases schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Scientists currently search for hints in genetic databases largely extracted from European and North American populations. That means they may be missing genetic variants in other populations that could help explain how the diseases develop—and how to treat them. (Whalen, 6/25)

The Wall Street Journal:
New Research Delves Into Sexual Fantasies
What do you want in bed? Sexual fantasies are among the most taboo of topics—awkward to talk about, even (or perhaps especially) with a partner we know well. They can sometimes feel embarrassing or shameful, even if we tell no one. We wonder: Where did this come from? Is it normal? (Bernstein, 6/25)

The Wall Street Journal:
From Meditation To Medication: Headspace Has A Prescription Strategy
You might know Headspace as a meditation app. What if it were also a prescription medication? The California-based company recently launched Headspace Health, a subsidiary whose executives’ goal is to apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a prescription meditation app by 2020. The company will soon launch a series of clinical trials to support an application. (Reddy, 6/25)

The Associated Press:
Pharmacist Denies Woman Miscarriage Drug On Moral Grounds
The Arizona State Board of Pharmacy will investigate the complaint of a woman who says a Walgreens pharmacist refused to give her medication necessary to end her pregnancy after her baby stopped developing. The woman, who the Arizona Republic identified as Nicole Arteaga, described in a viral Facebook post how she was publicly humiliated when attempting to fill the prescription to end her pregnancy — a pregnancy she wanted, but needed to terminate because she would ultimately miscarry. She says the pharmacist refused to fill the prescription with other customers within earshot and she left the location in tears with her 7-year-old child by her side. (6/25)

Bloomberg:
Walgreens Beefs Up Pharmacist Training After Woman Denied Drug
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. will revamp its training after an Arizona woman said she was humiliated when a pharmacist, citing personal objections, refused to fill a prescription to treat her miscarriage. In an incident that sparked heated commentary on social media, a pharmacist at a Walgreens store in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria wouldn’t dispense a miscarriage drug for Nicole Mone Arteaga, who had just found out that her baby’s development had stopped. (Langreth and Kasumov, 6/25)

The Associated Press:
4 Charged With Defrauding Insurers Of More Than $200M
Four Mississippi residents are accused of defrauding insurers of more than $200 million, the latest indictments in a still-unfolding investigation into pharmacies that prosecutors say bribed health care providers to prescribe handcrafted high-dollar medications that were in many cases unnecessary. Indictments against Hope Thomley and Randy Thomley of Hattiesburg, Glenn Beach Jr. of Sumrall, and Gregory Parker of Laurel were unsealed Monday in Hattiesburg. (6/25)

The Associated Press:
Psychiatric Hospital Loses Certification And Federal Dollars
Washington state's largest psychiatric hospital has lost its federal certification and $53 million in annual federal funds after a recent unannounced inspection discovered a list of health and safety violations. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified the state on Monday that Western State Hospital is out of compliance, and the federal government will not make payments for patients admitted after July 8. They'll cover current patients for up to 30 days. (6/25)

NPR:
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha: Lead, Water And Resistance In Flint, Mich.
In August 2015, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha was having a glass of wine in her kitchen with two friends, when one friend, a water expert, asked if she was aware of what was happening to the water in Flint, Mich. Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician in Flint, knew that the city had changed its water source the previous year. Instead of channeling water from the Great Lakes, residents were now drinking water from the nearby Flint River. She had been aware of some problems with bacteria after the switch, but she thought everything had been cleared up. (Gross, 6/25)

This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.